


let’s be together, day and night

by kibumt



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, coffee shop AU, yuta falls easily, yuwin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-26 05:29:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14993810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kibumt/pseuds/kibumt
Summary: turn up the volumeso my heart that flutters because of you can be hiddenit’s alright if you don’t say anythingyou don’t need to be apart from melet’s be together, day and night





	1. one

[7:34]

late, fuck, he was late.

third time this week, too.

it's not like he was hired a week ago. that would just be sad.

it's been two weeks.

yuta sighed tiredly and checked his watch for the tenth time in two minutes.

[7:36]

how pathetic of him. it was his choice to stay out last night. it was his choice to down those ocean blue shots. it was his choice to be fucked by the bar owner for more of those ocean blue shots once he ran out of money.

basically, it was his choice to be a disappointment.

once he left for art school, mother yelling "never come back"'s and "i can't stand you"'s behind his trembling figure, it seemed he did everything in his power to disappoint his mother as much as possible. from taking every single art class imaginable to modeling to finally dropping out to work in the local café, yuta had pretty much done it all.

the thing was, he regretted everything. and he wished he could just, maybe, go back a few years to when he was packing his thrifted suitcase, clothing and cigarettes pouring out the sides, and just, stopped.

but reminiscing will help him none.

around the corner, and into the shop, he thought. pushing through the icy wind, trembling fingers, he wondered with a quiet aura, why it had to be him. did he do something particularly disgusting that life only found it just to watch him suffer? did he deserve it? he was tired. so terribly tired. the sky seemed to blend with the concrete. his shoes were wet.   
and he was tired.


	2. two

"hey, sorry i'm late."

jaehyun sighed, not looking up from where he was polishing the overused silverware for the third time that week.

"yeah, you're really not."

yuta's eyes narrowed to a squint, sticking his tongue out at an oblivious jaehyun as he wiped his soaked shoes uselessly against the rug.

"tongue back in the mouth, han."

maybe not so oblivious.

yuta had just begun working here, and walking into the shop a couple weeks ago to see jaehyun was a surprise to them both. lee jaehyun, graduated top of their class in high school, now the owner of a modest bakery, and definitely not a doctor or a lawyer or some other position everyone thought he was surely destined for. they weren't particularly close or anything in their youth, brief exchanges occasionally in the few classes they shared, but it was a shock nonetheless. they had become closer quite quickly over the time yuta was hired, and it was such a relief to his exhausted mindset. 

it was uncomfortable, though, knowing how much he had changed. and jaehyun saw it too. he noticed the hickeys, the deep purple bags beneath his eyes, the mornings he came in and found the lights overwhelming. he didn't expect jaehyun to end up like this. and he knew jaehyun would say the same about him.

 

he never noticed, back when they were younger, how observant jaehyun was (is). he saw everything. he was supposed to be the one too absorbed in his own future to care about what else was going on. but he saw everything. jaehyun remembered things, their conversations in high school, the few they had, what they talked about, and yuta's past habits he had forgotten about. he remembered the shade of crimson yuta turned when caught listening to music in class, he remembered how yuta only liked to wear shades of gray and black, and he remembered that yuta didn't like to talk to anyone. and jaehyun liked that about yuta, because he was the same way.

yuta took off his trenchcoat, gloves dangling out of the pocket, and hung it up before moving to behind the counter. 

it was like this every day of the past couple weeks. waking up, grabbing a bite to eat, running out the door, sanity barely in hand. it was okay, though, yuta thought. because he was here, still. things weren't working out, and he was more than aware. but with the lows always come the ups, and yuta wasn't about to forget that.


	3. three

the day went by quickly. it did sometimes tend to do that, but only sometimes. it was around 16:00 and the café had been empty for around half an hour. it was habit, even this early into the job, for yuta to smile at the noise of the bell above the door.

yuta looked up, hair back, eyes bright, and smile sweet.

the customer, male, hood over his head, mask over his face, shook his arms a bit to rid of excess rainwater, wiping his shoes on the welcome mat before making his way over to the counter. his coat was black, shiny, jeans ripped and wet by the ankles, white shoes muddy around the laces. 

the boy looked up, and oh, his eyes. they were large, dark, heavy eyelashes and strong shape. yuta thought they were beautiful, especially the smile evident in them, despite the mask over his mouth. his heart fluttered, and he knew he was blushing. god, he was blushing. 

embarrassed, yuta asked a rushed "hello! how are you?" and the boy replied with a simple "well." he probably said something else after that, but yuta's ears were ringing and it wasn't the best circumstance in terms of concentration. it was nerves, the same before an exam, before public speaking. he felt them a lot, the nerves. it made his head hurt, his stomach twist, and it wasn't comfortable. 

his mask moved over his mouth as he spoke.

"uh, do you guys have some kind of, like, croissant thing?"

and yuta shouldn't have had to think about that. yet, he found himself scrunching his eyebrows and tripping over his feet slightly as he tried to check the showcase. dizzy. he felt dizzy.

there were croissants. three kinds.

"croissants! of course," yuta gestured to the display of pastries, scratching the back of his neck. "we have plain, chocolate, and whole grain."

the boy smiled with his eyes again, and yuta couldn't seem to breathe properly.

"uh, okay. uh, i'll take a chocolate one. and a small coffee please."

yuta felt warm. warm in his cheeks, his chest, his hands.

"of course. to go?"

"nah," the boy replied, shaking his head slightly, "i'll stay here, i think."

of course he would. it was pouring. yuta cursed himself silently, grinning a bit too wide, 

awkwardly waving his hands as if to display the plethora of empty seats the store boasted.

"okay! please, take a seat wherever you'd like. i'll bring your food."

and that eye smile, again.

yuta watched the boy take his wallet out of his coat pocket, wiping a few drops of water from it before-

"no, don't worry about it. on the house."

fuck, jaehyun was going to kill him.

the boy's eyes widened, head tilted, hands still. it was cute. yuta felt himself thinking that quite a bit. 

"w-what? you don't have to. you're very kind."

yuta smiled, forcefully, for controlling his pulse was already consuming such an excessive amount of energy. 

"i know i don't have to. you look cold, and it's rainy. don't worry about it," yuta repeated.

"uh, thank you a lot. like, i really appreciate it," the boy bowed briefly, once, twice, and yuta watched his back as he sat at a table near the front, facing away from the counter.

and yuta thought even his back was beautiful.


	4. four

the week was long, they always were. the sun never seemed to set some days, orange and hot, or covered by purple clouds the color of the bruises on yuta’s collarbone. it didn’t make a difference, they dragged on the same. he worked everyday, full time. open to close. it wasn’t too awful, he had jaehyun. and free smoothies. smoothies are never bad. 

yuta had only went out twice the past week. jaehyun noticed, somehow. he said yuta seemed less tired, more focused. yuta noticed it too. he hadn’t felt so stable in such a long time, and it felt strange to him, being okay.

lately, laying in bed after work, he watched the sky. he watched it stay constant, green clouds, silver lights. he liked how it looked different every night, but you could only tell it did if you looked closely. the clouds were lighter some nights, less stars others. yuta liked being able to point these things out. maybe because it distracted him, gave him something to think about other then everything. maybe because he felt like he was the only one studying above in this way, no one else was awake, no one else noticed how the sky was tinted differently yesterday. 

he fell asleep, every night, with nothing but space in his mind.


	5. five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> messy messy

he came to work early the next morning, before jaehyun, before the sun rose. the streets were bare, and the world seemed to be still. he wasn’t tired, he was calm, but happy. he had felt that recently, more than ever before. as a child he remembered waking up this early, sitting on the edge of his baby blue mattress looking through the blinds, watching the blood orange sun peek through the clouds. he would sit until his mother called him for school, angry, usually, bags the color of the night sky under her eyes.

but yuta was away from that now, and he wasn’t planning on returning.

it was a while before opening when jaehyun’s frame beneath a cap entered the shop, bell chiming above him.

“what’re you doing here so early, yuta?”

yuta smiled, genuinely, shrugging.

“just felt like it,” he answered, “i started the brews though, they should be done by now.”

jaehyun smiled back, removing the orange hat atop his head, running his fingers through the auburn hair. it was warm today, too warm for a jacket, jaehyun wearing just a cardigan over his white shirt. 

“thanks, man.”

jaehyun took his apron off the hook near his head, replacing it with his cap, and tied it languidly around his waist.

it was friday, and the mornings were usually quite busy, parents before work coming to get coffee, interns frazzled, elders reading the paper. 

and occasionally, the boy.

he only returned a couple times after their first encounter, eyes always bright, always deep, and mask always on. it was annoying, how unbothered the boy seemed by everything. the occasional shattered mug, the less occasional screaming child, and all in between. yuta wished he would show something, some sign of feeling. god, yuta didn’t even know the boy’s name and he remained constantly in thought of him. 

jaehyun had told yuta to ask for his name. it wasn’t strange, he had said, just becoming friendly with a usual customer. and in theory, jaehyun was correct. asking for the boy’s name wasn’t entirely weird, but yuta’s nerves waiting for a certain someone to walk through the shop door’s every day were persistent.

but he stayed waiting until the sky yellowed every evening.


End file.
